Improvement in furnace-grates



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEicE.

GEORGE L. SMITH, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN FURNACE-GRATES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 40,712, dated November 24, 1863.

structing the upper ed ge or top of lgrate-bearers in such manner that the ashes, cinders, and clinkers which .pass or drop through the openings or air-spaces in the grate will not lodge thereon and obstruct the free passage of air necessary for combustion and fer keep ing the grates cool.

- I construct my grate-bearer in any of the known foims and apply thereto a sharp, con- I tracted Lipper top surface, substantially as shown in the drawings, A A, Figures 1,2, and 3.

TheI object of my invention is to lessen the wear and save in a measure the great expense of grates occasioned by fracture and burning out.

With the ordinaiy flat-top grate-bearer in use great loss to the grates is occasioned by the ashes, cinders, and clinkers, which bank up on the bearers and ll up the air-spaces in the grates, thus preventing the air from passing through that part of the grate which is over the bearers, which not only occasions the burning and melting of the grates, but obstructs the draft and renders that part of the furnace less effective as gratesurface. To obviate the difficulties arising from this cause I construct my bearer with its top or upper surface contracted or beveled, thus: as A A, Figs. 1, 2, and 3 in the drawings,so that the bearer may not obstruct the openings for air in the grate, and likewise to allow the ashes and cinders to pass unobstructed to the ash-pit below.

Fig. l is a perspective view of bearers so constructed, with a section of grates lying thereon. Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section of` Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is another form of grate-bearer with my improvement.

A A marked on drawings is the beveled or contracted upper edgeor top of the bearers.

The advantages of my invention are, rst, an economy by lessening the liability of grates to burn or break; second, a free passage of air to support combustion through every and all parts of the grate lyingthereon, thus making the whole area oi' the furnace an effective grate-surface; third, lessening the liability of the grates lying' thereon to warp and spring.

Having thus fully described my invention and the mode of applying it, I remark that I do not claim to have invented a gratebearer,ex cept the beveled contracted upper edge or top; no'r do I confine my invention to any partieular form of bearer otherwise than the beveld top; neither do I confine my invention itself to any particular form or shape, except the beveled or contracted upper edge or top of grate bearers or supports 5 but What I do claim as new, and desire to se' cure by Letters Patent. ot' the United States, 1s-

'Ihe forming of grate bearers for steamboilers and other furnaces with the beveled or contracted top or upper surface, A, on which the grate-bars rest, substantially as and for the purpose set forth in the specification.

GEO. L/SMITH. Witnesses:

PHILIP A. DEUEL, GEO. H. STAEBUOK. 

